Edgar Allan Poe

Introduction to English Literature 04

March 21 and 24, 2023
 Table of Contents

 Edgar Allan Poe Bio

 Point of View and Unreliable Narrator
 Key Passages from “The Cask of Amontillado”
Edgar Allan Poe Biography
 Born in Boston in 1809 as a son of itiner-
ant actors who died in 1810 and 1811.
 Taken care of by John Allan, a wealthy
merchant of Richmond Virginia.
 Went to school in England 1815-1820 and
attended University of Virginia from 1826.
 Allan wanted Edgar to pursue a legal ca-
reer, but he fled to Boston.
 A short army career and an attempt to
become a professional military officer in
West Point, soon dismissed for neglect of
duty.
 Editorship of literary magazine the South-
ern Literary Messenger 1835-37.
Edgar Allan Poe Biography
 “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym,” a
dark nautical tale in 1837-38, in W. H.
Auden’s words, “one of the finest adven-
ture stories ever written.”
 Co-editing in 1839-40 Burton’s Gentle-
man’s Magazine where he published ‘The
Fall of the House of Usher,’ which was a
rare immediate success.
 Working for The New York Mirror during
which he won literary prizes.
 ‘The Raven,’ his most popular piece of
poetry in 1844.
 Lived in poverty with Virginia his wife(his
cousin 14 years younger than him) and
mother-in-law without regular income
and Virginia died of TB in 1847.
Edgar Allan Poe Biography

 His belief in the beauty of melancholy.

 Severely disturbed in his last years having a
number of relationships with women.
 Missing in Baltimore for 5 days and discov-
ered in a delirium and died after a few
days.
 Buried in Baltimore next to his wife in
1849.
 His literary reputation largely ignored or
derided during his life time.
 W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Henry
James and T. S. Eliot were his early admir-
ers.
 Point of View

 The position or vantage-point from which the events of a story seem to be ob-
served and presented to us.
 Third-person narratives: omniscient and limited point of view.
 First-person narratives: restricted to the narrator’s partial knowledge.
 Multiple point of view.
 Unreliable Narrator

 A narrator whose account of events appears to be faulty, misleadingly biased,

or otherwise distorted.
 A sense of irony is created by the discrepancy between the unreliable narra-
tor’s view of events and the view that readers suspect to be more accurate.
 The unreliable narrator does not have to be morally untrustworthy or a habit-
ual liar. Sometime they are harmlessly naïve, ‘fallible’, or ill-informed such
as Huck in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Questions about Narration and Point of View
 Does the narrator speak in the first, second, or third person?
 Is the story narrated in the past or present tense? Does the verb tense affect
your reading of it in any way?
 Does the narrator use a distinctive vocabulary, style, and tone, or is the lan-
guage more standard and neutral?
 Is the narrator identified as a character, and if so, how much does he or she par-
ticipate in the action?
 Does the narrator ever seem to speak to the reader directly (addressing “you”)
or explicitly state opinions or values?
 Do you know what every character is thinking, or only some characters, or none?
 Does the narrative voice or focus shift durng the story or remain consistent?
 Do the narrator, the characters, and the reader all perceive matters in the same
way, or are there differences in levels of understanding(114)?
 Motivation

 The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he
ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of
my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At
length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled--but the very
definitiveness with which it was resolved, precluded the idea of risk. I must
not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when ret-
ribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger
fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong(p. 82/179).
 Manipulation

 "As you are engaged, I am on my way to

Luchesi. If any one has a critical turn, it is
he. He will tell me--" "Luchresi cannot tell
Amontillado from Sherry." "And yet some
fools will have it that his taste is a match for
your own." "Come, let us go(p.83/180)."
 "Let us go, nevertheless. The cold is merely
nothing. Amontillado! You have been imposed
upon. And as for Luchresi, he cannot distin-
guish Sherry from Amontillado(p.83/180)."
 I had told them that I should not return until
the morning, and had given them explicit or-
ders not to stir from the house. These orders
were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their
immediate disappearance, one and all, as
soon as my back was turned(p.83/180).
Ironies and word-plays revealing the
Narrator’s cruel nature
 "I drink," he said, "to the buried that repose around us.“
"And I to your long life(p.84/181)."

 "I forget your arms." "A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure; the foot
crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel." "And the
motto?" "Nemo me impune lacessit." “Good!" he said. The wine sparkled in his
eyes and the bells jingled. My own fancy grew warm with the
Medoc(p.84/181).
Irony in a little bickering concerning
Freemason

 "You are not of the masons." "Yes, yes," I said; "yes, yes." "You? Impossible! A
mason?" "A mason," I replied. "A sign," he said, "a sign." "It is this," I answered,
producing a trowel from beneath the folds of my roquelaire a
trowel(p.85/182).
The Narrator’s deceptive self-justification

 "Pass your hand," I said, "over the wall; you cannot help feeling the nitre. In-
deed, it is very damp. Once more let me implore you to return. No? Then I
must positively leave you. But I must first render you all the little attentions
in my power(p.85/182)."
The Narrator’s vindictive nature ex-
pressed without irony
 The wall was now nearly upon a level with my breast. I again paused, and
holding the flambeaux over the mason-work, threw a few feeble rays upon
the figure within. A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly
from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back. For
a brief moment I hesitated--I trembled. Unsheathing my rapier, I began to
grope with it about the recess; but the thought of an instant reassured me. I
placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied. I
reapproached the wall; I replied to the yells of him who clamoured. I re-
echoed--I aided--I surpassed them in volume and in strength. I did this, and
the clamourer grew still(p.86/183).
 Ending without Poetic Justice

 For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace re-
quiescat(p.87/184)!

*May he rest in peace!